There are now two Hollywood films, an official biography, articles, YouTube clips, and much, much more about the iconic co-founder of Apple; Steve Jobs. And yet, it would be awfully remiss of us not to do a Throwback Thursday piece without mentioning one of the finest machines to have been birthed in the 1980s: the Apple Macintosh (‘Mac’ for the cool school of ‘98).
So without further ado, we go back to 1984, to a scruffy-looking genius; the pre-turtleneck Steve Jobs and his unveiling of a compact device that changed the course of personal computing.
Why 1984 will not be “1984”
The stage was set for the grand spectacle. Super bowl, 1984, the crowd fidgety with the weight of expectation. The screen lights up, it’s George Orwell’s dystopian world, David Graham as Big Brother, speaking of a unification of thoughts, an ideology more powerful than any army on earth.
Anya Major, the unexpected heroin, charges forward bearing a hammer, pursued by the relentless Thought Police. Rippling muscles, she plants her feet firmly into the ground, using them as a fulcrum to pivot her body. She swings, swings, and then releases the hammer, and with a thunderous crash, the screen falls away in a burst of light.
And the message is clear: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’”
Ridley Scott’s brilliant direction, an unforgettable cinematic commercial, and the interest of millions of people piqued by this curious Macintosh machine.
Apple Computers Inc.
Long story short, Steve Wozniak was fascinated by the idea of a compact machine, where you could have a keyboard and a television monitor as an output. His first creation was the Apple I, which was basically a typewriter with a CPU, RAM, and basic text-video chips. Woz really was a whiz.
At the time, this was considered a complete personal computer, but for the millennials reading this now, you’d be hard pressed to believe that anything without touch screen can be considered complete.
After struggling to convince investors that Apple was the way of the future, Mike Markkula was eventually sold on the idea, and after funding the business, Apple Computer Inc was set for the road, about to go toe-to-toe with the likes of the Commodore PET, spearheaded by the sometimes abrasive Steve Jobs and wizard Steve Wozniak.
Apple Macintosh 128k
By the end of the 1970s, Apple Computers Inc. was already a full-fledged company, with a staff of computer designers and a number of products in the pipeline. In 1979, Jobs and a team of Apple Engineers paid an educational visit to Xerox PARC, where Jobs was fascinated by the Xerox Alto.
After the visit, he was absolutely convinced that all future PCs would use a graphical user interface (GUI), and this marked an important period in Apple history. Back at headquarters, there was a great divide between two production teams: one team went to work on the Jobs-led Apple Lisa, while the other got down and handy with developing the Macintosh. It was a race for space, the engines were started, ready, set, go!
Although the Lisa beat Macintosh to the market in 1983, it was a commercial flop thanks to a combination of high price and limited software titles. It was time to put the egos aside, and in 1984, Apple unveiled the Macintosh 128K at a showcasing event that would place Steve Jobs in the upper echelons of visionary salesmen.
Easily one of the most recognisable personal computers, with the beautiful beige case, CRT monitor, keyboard and mouse, the computer went on sale for a whopping $2,495 (not adjusted for inflation), but after Ridley Scott’s brilliant commercial, and Steve Jobs pulling off a Houdini, 70,000 units were sold between January and May 1984.
It was any wonder they got to unveiling the product, with internal scuffles over things such as a fan-cooling system over a conventional one (conventional prevailed until 1987) putting the entire staff at Apple on edge under the obsessive, often erratic, direction of Steve Jobs.
Macintosh legacy
The Macintosh, and Apple as a whole, have generally set themselves apart from the competition by being bold and ‘anti-system’. The refusal to go with the status quo certainly made things difficult for the staff who worked on the Macintosh. For example, their defiance to not emulate existing DOS or Apple II software, choosing instead to reinvent the wheel and force developers to create entirely new ones for their prized product was one of several challenges behind the scenes.
It was actually planned for a 1982 released, but was well behind schedule because of all the nitpicking and internal bickering, but 1984 proved to be a strategic win because it coincided perfectly with the backdrop of Orwell’s dystopian world, and allowed Steve Jobs to emerge on stage and become a keynote legend thereafter.
In many ways, the refined GUI that was used for the Macintosh 128K has continued to feature right up until the present day (with tweaks and adjustments of course), and for those familiar with Mac lingo, it’s called Mac OS. Jobs did point out that the future of innovative computing would be in constantly improving the software, and as we saw in the recent Apple WWDC, they are staying true to his vision.
And for those who are still arguing for the status quo, one thing’s for sure: you might not have liked Steve Jobs, or you may have loved him, but you simply could not ignore him.